The Spartans traveled to Brenham Texas this weekend to take on 4 tough opponents.

Stratford Spartans vs. Houston Lamar, Thursday March 7th

Caden Cooper would get the ball from Coach Richards in Game 1 vs. a familiar opponent from Houston Lamar. The Spartans would strike first in the bottom of the first after a Caden Baker single and a couple of hit batters. Maddox Garnero would deliver with a sacrifice fly to bring home Baker and make it 1-0 Spartans. Blake Barry would continue his hot hitting with an RBI double to bring home Rian Healy. The inning would end and see the Spartans up 4-0 after a couple of wild pitches scored Barry and Carson Craft. Stratford would add 2 more runs in the bottom of the third to take a 6-0 lead and never look back from there. Cooper would be dominant all day on the mound. The tall righty got the win going 4 full innings, scattering 3 hits, and striking out 6. Walker Sage came on in relief of Cooper and pitched 2 scoreless innings, striking out 6. The Spartans would start the day off right with a 6-1 victory over their cross-town nemesis.

Stratford Spartans vs. Brenham Cubs, Thursday March 7th

The night cap would see the Spartans face off against the hometown Brenham Cubs. Stratford would strike first with a leadoff single in the top of the 1st by Caden Baker. He would scamper home after a Braxton Wakefield double to the LCF gap to make it 1-0, good guys. Wakefield would eventually touch the plate after a wild pitch and make it 2-0 before the Cubs could blink an eye. Senior Thomas Cloud would take the mound against the Cubs and have a scoreless first inning, not allowing a run to keep the score 2-0. Stratford would add a run in the second with an RBI groundout by Cooper Harrison that scored Rian Healy, who was running for Blake Barry. Once again in the third, Stratford would pile on more runs to make it 6-0. Leadoff singles by Bo Harrison followed by Braxton Wakefield set the table for Barry. A hard-hit ball that the shortstop couldn’t handle by Barry delivered 3 more runs to make it 6-0 Spartans. The Bears didn’t go quietly. They would battle back the next three innings and ultimately take the lead 7-6 on a 3R home run. They would tack on the 8th run in the 5th to make it 8-6, and the Spartans would not get a chance to hit again.

Stratford Spartans vs. Willis Wildkats, Friday March 8th,

Game 3 this weekend saw Stratford matching up against the Willis Wildkats at Blinn College. The Willis right hander proved to be a dominant force all morning for the Wildkats. He would go 6 innings and strike out 9 Spartans en route to a 9-1 victory to start day 2. Henry Braniff, Blake Barry, Luke Zilafro, and Adam Gilbert all tallied hits for The Spartans, with Zilafro adding the RBI for the Spartans.

Stratford Spartans vs. St. Thomas Catholic, Friday March 8th,

Game 4 of the weekend was against the local St. Thomas Catholic school. The Spartans would not get a break in this game either. They would face off against a hard-throwing right hander that delivered 90-94 mph heat all night. He was able to use a mix of off-speed and high velocity to keep the Stratford batters off balance all night. St. Thomas jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but Stratford would answer. The Spartans would plate 2 runs in the bottom of the 2nd to make it 3-2 on an RBI single by Rian Healy. St. Thomas would stretch their lead to 7-2 in the top half of the 3rd. Stratford would answer back in their bottom half of the 4th. Burke Malloy would begin the inning with a hard single. Owen Bennett would walk, followed by a Will McCarroll walk to load the bases. Malloy and Bennett would score on a couple of wild pitches to make it 7-4. Ultimately it would not be enough, and the boys fell in the night cap 7-4. Drew Emery pitched well on the mound despite the loss. The big sophomore righty only allowed 2ER over 2.1 innings and struck out 3.

The Spartans went 1-3 on the weekend and will look to bounce back this week as they open District play against The Cy Fair Bobcats.

This week’s Varsity Baseball Schedule:

Tuesday, March 12th, 2 pm, Cy Fair High School

Wednesday, March 13th, 2 pm, Stratford High School